Well, the shipment of the toothed belts to make Bergerud's suggested modifications to the rotary jig finally arrived. I realize they came from China but it must have been on a slow boat. Anyway, I replaced the two layers of grip tape on the geared wheel with the belts from AliExpress and one layer of grip tape and ran the calibration. Apparently, the circumferences are exactly the same because the calibration was dead on the first time.
Up until now I have been very reluctant to carve anything in really expensive wood using the jig. Although the candle holders that were carved in Cherry turned out great, the blanks were cut-offs from previous projects so they really didn't cost anything. Feeling very confident about the jig and the modifications I figured, what the heck, "go big or go home", so I gave it a try on a 3"by 3" by 12" blank of Honduras Rosewood. The blanks were about $38.00 apiece before shipping. The jig performed flawlessly. However, during the carve the bit slipped down in the chuck about 1/8". The resulting ridge was too much to sand so the carve was ruined. The set screw in the chuck was replaced just before the carve and everything appeared to be good. I had even given it an extra twist to be sure the 1/8" long bit was very tight. Oh well, I guess in my case Murphy is an optimist. After disassembling the set screw and locking mechanism and a careful and meticulous cleaning, the carve was restarted on a new blank. It's carving now as this message is being written. When it's finished I will post a pic.
It takes an extra minute or so to get the jig, the rail, the shoe, and the shim aligned in the beginning but well worth the time spent. The modifications have made the jig a real pleasure to work with.
